USA > Illinois > Cook County > History of Cook County, Illinois : being a general survey of Cook County history, including a condensed history of Chicago and special account of districts outside the city limits : from the earliest settlement to the present time, volume II > Part 19
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Chicago became in a very short time the great objective point, and among the "sooners" were such men as Melville W. Fuller, S. K. Dow, Samuel W. Fuller, A. W. Arrington, B. F. Ayer, Cyrus Bent- ley, William C. Goudy, M. F. Tuley, Lambert Tree, Robert Hervey, Richard Merrick, Joseph P. Clarkson, E. W. Tracey, John Van Arnam, Emory A. Storrs, Wirt Dexter, James M. Walker, Charles Hitchcock, B. F. Gallup, John A. and George W. Thompson, Thomas F. Withrow, John P. Wilson, E. W. Evans, H. T. Helm, Alexander S. Prentiss, B. F. Strother, Sidney Smith, William W. Farewell, James L. High, William K. McAllister, Corydon Beck- with, H. G. Miller, Penoyer L. Sherman, William H. King, Ira W. Scott, George Payson, Joseph E. Gary, Henry M. Shepard, Van H. Higgins, John N. Jewett, John M. Douglass, James P. Root, A. M. Pence, D. L. Shorey, John A. Jamieson, Homer N. Hibbard, Robert S. Blackwell, Henry Frink, Henry S. Monroe, and many others.
Richard Merrick was for a time a partner with Corydon Beck- with. He possessed great oratorical powers and attained great dis- tinction.
Corydon Beckwith was, without any question, one of the greatest lawyers that ever practiced at the Chicago bar, and he had as worthy compeers such men as William C. Goudy, Wirt Dexter, B. F. Ayer, Henry G. Miller, John A. Jewett, Melville W. Fuller, Emory A. Storrs, Sidney Smith, William K. McAllister, A. W. Arrington,
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James Donovan
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William H. King, Charles Hitchcock, John A. Jamieson, Robert Hervey, Joseph E. Gary, Van H. Higgins, and many others who would compare favorably with the members of any other bar in the United States.
William C. Goudy was one of the great lawyers of this State and in many respects had no superior. He was one of the best "all around" lawyers.
Samuel Snowden Hayes came to this city in 1850 and was, very soon after his arrival, employed as city solicitor. He was born in Nashville, Tenn., was a Democrat of the Douglas school and a very high-toned patriotic gentleman. He was city comptroller in 1862 and again in 1873.
Van H. Higgins became identified with our city and a member of our bar in 1852. He began practice in St. Louis in 1844, but re- moved to Galena in 1845, where he distinguished himself for his great industry and wonderful knowledge of decided cases.
Henry S. Monroe studied law with Henry R. Mygat at Oxford. Chenango county, N. Y., and was admitted to the bar in 1853, and came directly to Chicago. He was an excellent trial lawyer, strong and vigorous, and was engaged in many celebrated cases.
Joseph N. Barker studied law in the office of B. S. Morris and John J. Brown, and was admitted to the bar March 4, 1848. He took the census of Chicago in 1850 entirely alone, when the city was found to contain 28,250 inhabitants. He established a very large admiralty practice and from 1854 to 1860 was the leading lawyer in that department. He was at one time associated with George A. Meech, then with L. H. Hyatt, and then with Judge Tuley, afterward with H. F. Wait and Ira W. Buel.
John M. Douglass, who came to Chicago in 1856, became the general solicitor of the Illinois Central Railroad company and after- ward its president. The Hon. Robert H. McClelland says that he was the deepest thinker and the profoundest lawyer of his time.
Benjamin F. Ayer belongs to the old regime and is one of the most accomplished lawyers that ever practiced at the Chicago bar.
Charles Hitchcock possessed a wonderfully comprehensive mind. and weighed every question presented him with judicial fairness and impartiality. His grasp of legal principles was great and he could enforce his views in the most luminous and logical manner. He was always calm and self-poised in his way, yet he possessed great force. He was a model presiding officer and he displayed great knowledge of parliamentary law. He attained a very high place at the Chicago bar.
Kirk Hawes is another gentleman who was not only well and favorably known as a lawyer of distinction, but as an orator of great power. He graduated from Williams College in 1864, studied law in the office of Bacon & Aldrich at Worcester, came West soon after, and went into partnership with H. T. Helm, was
Vol. II-13.
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elected one of the judges of the Superior court in 1880 and reelected in 1886, but was defeated by the Democratic cyclone which swept over the country in 1892, and then engaged in private practice.
Henry T. Helm came to Chicago in 1854, when he was admitted to the Illinois bar. He entered into partnership with George K. Clarke, and soon established a large business. Mr. Clarke died some years since. After that he became in turn a partner of Kirk Hawes, E. S. Taylor, John L. Manning, A. M. Pence and Walter Howland.
H. M. Shepard, who was for many years on the Superior court bench, and later a member of the Appellate court of the First dis- trict of Illinois, was an accomplished jurist and very able lawyer. He studied law first with General Divens at Elmira, N. Y., and afterward with John K. Porter, of Albany. He became a very fine chancery lawyer and his decisions were characterized by being broad and well considered.
Judge Gary was elected to the Superior court bench in 1863. He succeeded Judge Grant Goodrich. Judge Gary not only proved himself a great judge, but one of the best posted men in his profes- sion. He presided at the celebrated trial of the anarchists and in accordance with the verdict of the jury condemned them to death. No judge ever worked harder or performed greater services on the bench than Judge Gary ..
Henry E. Seelye removed to Chicago in 1850 and commenced reading law in the office of Morris & Goodrich and was admitted to the bar in 1852, and from that time to this has pursued the even tenor of his way.
Robert Rae made insurance and admiralty law a specialty and at one time did a larger business than any other lawyer at the bar. In 1882 he went to London and argued a case in the English Court of Commissions involving a large amount of money, and was successful. He was employed by the American Board of Underwriters and was the first American lawyer that ever appeared in any case in that court. He settled some very interesting com- mercial questions of admiralty, and by his researches contributed much to settle the admiralty practice in matters pertaining to our inland seas.
Cyrus Bentley is another lawyer of great merit and of the most exemplary character who deserves recognition and the most kindly remembrance. He came here in the '50s and established a fine prac- tice, and was not only a gentleman of the highest type, but was a jurist fit to adorn the bench or any other position. He passed away many years ago.
Frederick Hampden Winston became very early, through his connection, interested in railroad law and railroad business and prospered finely.
Some of the most prominent lawyers who died from 1858 to 1867
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were: Bolton F. Strother, 1862; Andrew Harvie, 1863; Lorenzo D. Wilkinson, 1863; George W. Roberts, killed at the battle of Murfreesboro, January, 1863; John A. Bross, July 30, 1864; Charles M. Willard, 1866; Edward P. Towne, 1866; Henry L. Rucker, 1867; Solomon M. Wilson, 1867.
Every bar has a number of natural-born leaders of men, great advocates, skilled trial lawyers, successful verdict-getters and bril- liant orators, and the Chicago bar forms no exception to this rule. If anyone wanted to know in olden times what form of action to adopt or what pleas to put in in any common law case he would be told without hesitancy to go for advice to James H. Collins, to George W. Lay, the partner of Arnold; to Ezra B. McCagg, to Grant Goodrich, to J. Y. Scammon, or John M. Wilson; or, if it should be a complicated matter, coming within the chancery juris- diction, it would be Collins, or Goodrich, Mark Skinner, George Manierre, Hugh T. Dickey, Erastus S. Williams, John Wood- bridge, George Meeker, or N. B. Judd; but if a case was to be tried and it required skill, shrewdness, adroitness, a knowledge of the rules of evidence and eloquence, then it was Justin Butterfield, Thomas Hoyne, E. W. Tracey, E. G. Ryan, Isaac N. Arnold, E. C. Larned, Buckner S. Morris, or Grant Goodrich, or J. Y. Scammon. There were others who were great in their way, but these men were strong and tried every case with the most wonderful skill and power. They were at the head of the bar as it existed under the old régime and most worthily filled the positions universally awarded them, and they could be relied upon in any emergency.
Tradition has invested the name of Samuel Lisle Smith with a halo of glory. It is claimed that he was possessed of the most ex- traordinary mental endowments and the highest oratorical powers. At first he was likened to Curran or Grattan, but that claim has been surrendered, and it is now asserted that he was the S. S. Prentiss of the Chicago bar and was without a peer. He arose at a time when effusive speaking, or what is known as stump oratory, was it its height; when Tom Corwin, Tom Marshall, Ed Baker and Henry Clay had been exalted to the very highest places in the pantheon of fame, and a great wave of eloquence was sweeping over the land.
In 1835 Thomas Ford, who had become prominent as a lawyer and State's attorney in the Fifth Judicial circuit, was elected by the Legislature a judge of the newly created Sixth circuit. He exchanged with Judge Breese, who held the first term in Chicago in 1835. That term extended from May 23 to June 4, and the records show that a great deal of business was done during that period. Judge Breese was then but thirty-nine years of age, but was possessed of great executive ability and good attainments as a lawyer, and he allowed no one to linger. This term marks an era in our local history, for from that time onward the law business
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increased steadily, and for the first time the legal fraternity began to flourish and assume a prominence which had never characterized the profession before.
The second term of the Circuit court for the year 1835 was, by arrangement between Ford and Stephen T. Logan, held by that great jurist in this city. It was not as long as the one held by Judge Breese, it having begun on the first Monday of October and closed on the 11th of that month. There were, according to the most authentic accounts, 103 civil suits on the docket, 70 of which were disposed of. The number of people's cases was 37, but 19 of these were against persons who had been summoned to serve on the jury, but failed to obey the summons; two were fined $5 each.
In 1837 Cook county became a part of the Seventh circuit and John Pearson, of Danville, was elected judge. He had been ad- mitted to the bar December 5, 1833, and his reputation as a lawyer was such that his appointment was considered an insult to the entire Chicago bar, and was most vigorously resented from the very first. The docket of the courts in Cook county had, by the opening of the May term, 1837, become greatly crowded and the Circuit court had at that time more than 700 cases on its docket.
At the meeting of the Twelfth General Assembly, February 10, 1841, the judges of the nine circuits were legislated out of office and five additional judges were added to the Supreme court, who were to do all the Circuit court business and hold two terms of the Supreme court at the capitol each year. By this arrangement Theophilus W. Smith was assigned to the Seventh circuit, which included Cook county, and he opened the spring term of that court for 1841 toward the close of April.
He also held the fall term, but when the time for holding the spring term for 1842 arrived he was too ill to hold court, and ac- cordingly a special term was called for July, which was held by Stephen A. Douglas, commencing July 18, 1842. This was the only time that Mr. Douglas ever held court in this county. Judge Smith resigned December 26, 1842.
Prior to the year 1831 the cabins of John Kinzie, Jean Baptiste Beaubien and Alexander Wolcott were the temples of justice in what is now Cook county. The house in which Kinzie administered justice was built in 1779 by Jean Baptiste Point de Sable, near the interesection of North Water and Rush streets, became the prop- erty of Jean Baptiste le Mai in 1796 and of John Kinzie in 1804. Enlarged by Kinzie, the house came down intact to 1833. In 1812 Beaubien purchased the Lee cabin on the lake shore, or old river bank, at the foot of Madison street, but it is questionable if he ever held court therein; for, in 1817, he moved into a house, purchased from Contractor Dean, at the foot of Randolph street, and in 1823 into the United States factory, which he purchased
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from the American Fur company for $500. There he was residing when appointed justice of the peace in 1825 and there he made his home until 1840. Dr. Wolcott, appointed justice in 1825, held court at Cobweb castle, on the southwest corner of State and North Water streets, from 1828 to 1830, when death released him from further judicial service; and so with the other justices who suc- ceeded them, the home, office or store formed the court room for years.
When Cook county was attached to the Fifth Judicial circuit in February, 1831, a term of court was ordered to be held in Cook county in April and a fall term in September, 1831. Under this order the court is said to have been held in a room on the first floor of the brick building of Fort Dearborn on September 6, 1831. In 1832 Judge Young arrived with two circuit riders of the bar, bringing the news that the Sacs and Foxes were on the warpath. He came to hold court, but there is no record of the spring term being ever held. The same year the commissioners authorized the sheriff to rent rooms from John Kinzie for court purposes, but there is not a record to show that the September term was opened. In May, 1833, Judge Young opened court, but no one knows morc about the location or the business transacted, while the same must be written of the fall term, which the late Thomas Hoyne asserted was duly held.
Meantime the new justices of the peace, such as 'Squire Harmon, introduced a new fashion in the matter of location by selecting one or other of the favorite taverns as a court room, the Green Tree tavern, on the northeast corner of Canal and Lake street, being Harmon's principal rendezvous. This fashion was so well estab- lished by the spring of 1834 that when Judge Young arrived in May he did not hesitate to preside in an unfinished room of Dexter Graves' tavern, known as the Mansion house, which occupied the sites of the building now known as 84-86 Lake street. His Honor did not relocate in the fall, for court was held in an unfinished store room on Dearborn street nearer Water than Lake street. In 1835 and 1836 the First Presbyterian church, on Clark street, north of the present Sherman house, was used for court purposes. The meeting house, though built in 1834, was moved and removed, and this, with the rough usage to which it was subjected while given over to the uses of the Circuit court, rendered it as unsafe and un- comfortable as it was devoid of taste and architectural expression.
The Municipal court was inaugurated in 1837 at the New York house, a tavern which stood on the north side of Lake street near Fifth avenue. When the Saloon building on the southeast corner of Lake and Clark streets was completed the city officers took possession of a part of the building and with them came the Munici- pal court, for the county watched its single court room, a block away, with jealousy.
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In 1835 a one-story and basement county building was erected on the southwest corner of Clark and Randolph streets, of which the main floor was dedicated to court purposes and the basement to the uses of the ordinary business of the county. In 1845 the Legis- lature enacted a law providing that four terms of the County court of Cook county should be held and making it mandatory on the commissioners to provide a suitable courtroom; for the judges com- plained of the accommodations in the Chapman building, on Ran- dolph street and Fifth avenue, which was used from 1840 to 1842, and of the room improvised out of the clerk and recorder's offices in 1844. The erection of the Market building in the center of State street, fronting on Randolph, in 1848, was to accommodate the city courts and offices, rather than offer any hospitality to the county judges; but more than once the original idea was set aside and the courts of record held therein. In 1853 the city and county erected a building on the public square, on the third story of which was the courtroom-an elegant apartment for that time-and herein the Circuit and kindred courts were held until the fire of 1871 reduced the room and building to ruins.
When the first Federal court was opened here by Judge Pope in July, 1848, the office of George W. Meeker, or rather his vacant storeroom, on Lake street east of Dearborn, was considered the most available place for holding court. In July, 1849, court was held in the office of Buckner S. Morris, and again in the Saloon building, until 1857, when a regular courtroom was established in the Larmon building, on the corner of Clark and Washington streets. In 1860 the Federal building, on the site of the present First National bank, was completed and there the sessions of the court were held until October, 1871, when fire destroyed the house. Temporary quarters were then obtained in Congress hall, on Michi- gan avenue and Congress street, but the fire of 1874 destroyed that building, and, to insure against future disappointments and losses, the courts took shelter in the Mutual Life Insurance company's building on La Salle street, leaving the restored Federal building to be dedicated to theatrical purposes. In April, 1880, the judges entered the "new Federal building." It may be added that prior to 1853 the courtroom of the pioneer courthouse of the county was sometimes offered to the Federal judges and the offer accepted on a few occasions.
The old Criminal Court building on the North side was com- pleted in 1873 and therein courts were held until the modern crimi- nal courthouses were completed. The Circuit, Superior, County and Probate courts occupied the County building after 1881-82. After the destruction of the old courthouse in the great fire, courts were held in the West Side High School building until January, 1872, when the temporary house known as "The Rookery," on the south- east corner of Adams and La Salle streets, was completed. For
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almost ten years the judges, officers, lawyers, litigants and jurors inhabited that dingy structure, and all were pleased when the new building was completed. Within another decade the new building became almost as dingy as "The Rookery," the heavy cornices began to fall in installments and its walls to settle. Like its con- temporary, the Federal building, it was declared unhealthy, if not unsafe; was subjected to repairs and denounced, until it appeared the county was ready to raze it. With all its interior and con- structive imperfections, it continued to be used by the courts and county officers. When this building was torn down courts and officers found quarters about town until the present structure was ready in 1908-09.
The Appellate court, established in 1877, made headquarters in the Grand Pacific hotel for some time, then moved to the Chicago Opera house, on the southwest corner of Clark and Washington, and later found a home in the more modern Ashland block and elsewhere.
The Supreme court, as established February 10, 1841, comprised nine judges, who were to supplant the Circuit judges. Judge T. W. Smith opened court here in April of the same year in the Chap- man building, on Randolph street and Fifth avenue, and that con- tinued to be the courthouse of the Seventh circuit some time.
The United States courts-the Circuit Court of Appeals, the Circuit court and the District court-found shelter in the Monad- nock building. When the $6,000,000 ruin on the Bigelow block appeared to be on the point of sinking into Mother Earth, in 1895, the Federal judiciary sought healthier quarters, leaving the post- office and customs authorities to tenant the dilapidated concern known as the Federal building, until they removed to the temporary structure on the lake front in 1896, and in 1906 to the new building on the old site.
Section 26 of Article VI of the Constitution of the State of Illi-, nois, in force August 8, 1870, provides that "the Recorder's court of the city of Chicago shall be continued and shall be called the Criminal court of Cook county. It shall have the jurisdiction of a Circuit court in all cases of criminal and quasi criminal nature, arising in the county of Cook, or that may be brought before said court pursuant to law ; and all recognizances and appeals taken in said county, on criminal and quasi criminal cases, shall be returna- ble and taken to said court. It shall have no jurisdiction in civil cases, except in those on behalf of the people, and incident to such criminal or quasi criminal matters, and to dispose of unfinished business. The terms of said Criminal court of Cook county shall be held by one or more of the judges of the Circuit or Superior court of Cook county, as nearly as may be in alternation, as may be determined by said judges, or provided by law. Said judges shall be ex-officio judges of said court."
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By the Constitution of 1870 it was provided by Article VI, enti- tled "Judicial Department," as follows :
"Section 23. The county of Cook shall be one judicial circuit. The Circuit court of Cook county shall consist of five judges until their number shall be increased, as herein provided. The present judge of the Recorder's court of the city of Chicago and the present judge of the Circuit court of Cook county shall be two of said judges, and shall remain in office for the terms for which they were respectively elected, and until their successors shall be elected and qualified. The Superior court of Chicago shall be continued, and called the Superior court of Cook county. The General Assembly may increase the number of said judges by adding one to either of said courts for every additional 50,000 inhabitants in said county over and above a population of 400,000. The terms of office of said : courts hereafter elected shall be six years."
Prior to the adoption of the Constitution of 1870, cities, villages and incorporated towns were formed under special acts of the General Assembly, and these special charters varied from each other, so that there was not a usual form of charter or uniform law applicable to these different municipalities. The Constitution of 1870 prohibited the passage by the General Assembly of any local or special laws incorporating cities, towns or villages, or changing or amending the charter of any town, city or village. The passage of local or special laws relating to divers other matters of local concern, such as laying out, opening, altering and working on roads or highways, vacating roads, town plats, streets, alleys and public grounds, or granting the right to lay down railroad tracks, was also prohibited by this Constitution.
In view of the changes in the organic law by the Constitution of 1870, and of the necessities for reforms in the government of cities in the respects mentioned, a conference was held of the mayors of the cities of Illinois, or their representatives, at Jacksonville, in the year 1871, to consider the subject of the revision of the law governing municipalities and the preparation of a general act which should embody the reforms which this conference should approve. A committee was appointed by this conference to prepare an act of this kind, and the General Incorporation Act, which was passed by the General Assembly and approved by the Governor on April 10, 1872, entitled "An act for the incorporation of cities and villages," was prepared. In April, 1875, this act was adopted by the city of Chicago, and has been adopted by a considerable number of other cities, while other cities still retain their special charters which were passed prior to the Constitution of 1870.
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This act of 1872 marks a distinct advance in municipal govern- ment. Taken altogether, it is perhaps the best charter of cities and villages which, up to that time, had ever been enacted in the United States. It is doubtless true, however, that, in view of the tremen-
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dous growth of the city of Chicago during the last thirty years, and the new conditions and problems which such growth has brought, and the larger experience with those problems, some changes in the form of municipal government provided by this act are now desirable. This act of 1872 differed mainly from the previous charters of cities in Illinois in that it gave to the mayor of the city greater powers and placed upon him more clearly and entirely the responsibility of the municipal government during his administration. Under this charter, if there are any evils in the government of Chicago for which the executive officers of the city are responsible, that responsibility rests upon the mayor, and this responsibility he cannot deny or shirk.
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